Now that the Pioneer Dock is being used by the Coast Guard and by the Tustumena ferry of the Alaska Marine Highway System, and even though the dock is not completely finished, I would like to thank a few people.

I thank Ron Drathman, as city manager, for agreeing to and providing the extra services needed to support the ferry services into Homer, displacing the ferries Tustumena and Kennicott to the deep-water dock for these many months and providing bus service for walk-on passengers and police security when it was needed.

I thank Bill Abbott and all his staff at the Port and Harbor Office for the extra work they provided to make this all work and for providing a vehicle to be used as a pilot car during the first stages of the new transition to the deep-water dock.

I thank Glen Satterwaite and the rest of the staff at port maintenance for the extra work they performed to make the ramp for the Tustumena to use on the deep-water dock, and moving it so many times to accommodate the ferry and other vessels.

I thank Lt. Cmdr. Charles Cashin and his crew on the Coast Guard Cutter Sedge for working with us on the deep-water dock, though inconvenient for all of us.

I also want to thank my staff at the Homer Ferry Terminal for the extra effort they provided to serve the customers of the ferries through this time.

Thanks to the Laidlaw bus drivers who were on time and courteous at all times.

And lastly, I thank Hurlen Construction for the fast work on the Pioneer Dock and for working with us at the ferry terminal, the Port of Homer and the city as a whole to make the dock project workable with as little inconvenience as possible and rescheduling their work to accommodate the ferries, Coast Guard and Petro Marine.